Your Mental Health is an important part of your overall wellbeing and how you function in your life as a whole.

Positive Mental Health contributes to your overall wellbeing and is experienced when you can realise your own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully and make a contribution to your community. Looking after our mental health can prevent problems in the future or help us get through difficult times.

It is normal and natural to feel down at times. Problems you may encounter might range from general everyday worries or low periods in your life, to more serious long-term conditions. One in 4 of us will experience a mental health difficulty in our lifetime. Everyone is different and how we respond to mental health difficulties can vary from person to person.

1 in 5 young Irish Adults aged 19-24 and 1 in 6 young people aged 11-13 are experiencing mental health problems.

Our school are on our way to achieving our 3rd Amber Flag. This is a huge achievement for us as a school community.

The Amber Flag signifies how ready we are here at Ard Scoil Rath Iomghain to promote positive mental health and acknowledge, embrace and support those suffering with mental health issues and indeed those affected by them.

Ireland has come a long way in the past few years in terms of breaking down the stigma that once surrounded mental health. No longer is it a taboo subject and no longer is it something to be ashamed of, or afraid of.

This new awareness and recognition is thanks to many support networks available such as Pitea House, Suicide Aware, Spun Out, Reach Out and Mental Health Ireland. So this flag is our way of saying:

At Ard Scoil Rath Iomghain, you are not alone, at Ard Scoil Rath Iomghain you will be supported and at Ard Scoil Rath Iomghain and at Ard Scoil Rath Iomghain, we will do everything possible to promote and encourage Positive Mental Health across our school community’’.